A new installment of the “Backyard Sports” video game franchise is in the works. The project is one of several ideas in development at Playground Productions, the rights holder of Backyard Sports, which is also considering a TV series or film adaptation of the iconic ’90s title.
The self-titled game is described as “a fresh and exciting take on the classic Backyard games with compatibility and updated features for today’s generation of gamers. The brand new game will feature all the original characters alongside a few new additions, and will embrace the comedy, diversity, accessibility and fun that made the original titles timeless classics. Like the retro titles, the next-generation game can be used as a tool to teach children sports rules and strategies, but it will also have difficulty levels that are challenging for the original fanbase.
The next-gen “Backyard Sports” game will be developed by Mega Cat Studios with heavy involvement from Playground Productions founder and CEO Lindsay Barnett and chief product officer Chris Waters.
“We’re really excited because we can basically take the game that people loved and add new features that are pretty much what you remember, maybe wrongly remember, but add new features that are modernized for the time,” Barnett said. “And also make it a little more challenging for the adults who loved it, while keeping all the charm and excitement for the kids who discover it.”
Playground Productions has steadily revived the ‘Backyard Sports’ brand with the October relaunch of ‘Backyard Baseball ’97’, which is now a global best-selling sports game on Steam, and then the re-release of ‘Backyard Soccer’. 98” on November 27. Other upcoming game relaunches include “Backyard Football ’99,” “Backyard Basketball ’01,” “Backyard Baseball ’01” and “Backyard Hockey ’02.”
Additionally, several of the classic ‘Backyard Sports’ titles are being developed into mobile gaming format by Playground Productions and Mega Cat Studios.
“When Lindsay and I first talked about this franchise, it was like, ‘Oh my god, I want to know more about Pablo and Keisha and Kenny and Pete and Sonny and all the characters,’” Waters said. “So we’re deep in development trying to bring these things back from a storytelling perspective. We started with the comics on our social media, where our fans all have subtitle competitions. And we’re going to expand that to actual animation, both for digital and for TV and film. So all of these things are actively being thought about and developed, but the focus is really on making a great game and bringing the games back to as many platforms as possible.”